


The Monster and His Children

by AvaCelt



Category: Gintama
Genre: Gen, Horror, Psychological Horror, post-Rakuyou Arc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-10
Updated: 2016-07-10
Packaged: 2018-07-22 16:21:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7445815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvaCelt/pseuds/AvaCelt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the end, no matter who died and who claimed the final victory, Gintoki would always be the demon's son.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Monster and His Children

**Author's Note:**

> Written for taiketsuenmi. Originally posted on [my Tumblr writing blog](http://victorsandvanquishers.tumblr.com/) and now being archived here for the A03 writing community.

When he's doped up on the best of Sakamoto's painkillers and smelling of Mutsu's special alcohol stash, he dreams about a picnic that took place thirty years ago. It was the first picnic of his life, the first of many with Shouyou, and the first time he'd tasted home-cooked food he could remember eating.

Except, it's not just him and Shouyou this time. He sees Oboro and Nobume, and maybe a few others, but he finds his attention drawn to a teenager with ash white hair and a baby girl with dark locks and tiny hands grasping a doughnut.

He doesn't know why they're there, but they are. He sees Oboro scoop rice into a bowl and wiping away doughnut crumbs from Nobume's face before turning his attention to Gintoki. Gintoki can't make out the words, but he can feel the tenderness emanate from the man he barely knows.

And there'a Utsuro, with his long blonde hair tied at the base of his waist, smiling cunningly at his children, patting Nobume's hair and watching sagely as Oboro serves him his meal.

When Utsuro turns to look at him, Gintoki realized where it all went wrong.

Utsuro, not Shouyou. It has eyes the color of fermented plums, unlike Shouyou's light grey ones. Gintoki jolts, feels the darkness spread from the base of the picnic blanket, up his spine, and onto his face before a hearty laugh reverberates throughout the bright, spring afternoon. Oboro keeps tending to Nobume, rocking the child in his lap while the sky turns black and the landscape becomes barren.

Gintoki looks down. His stubby, six year-old legs are on dry, hard rock, the picnic blanket no where to be found. He looks up and Oboro is dead, Nobume standing on top of a distant cliff, holding a bloodied sword.

Utsuro chuckles, and fluffs his permy white hair and Gintoki finds that he can't move.

“I'm waiting for you, son,” Utsuro tells him gently. Gintoki sees real love in the blood red eyes, the kind of love that murders and destroys as symbols of its passion.

And Gintoki steps forward, tears springing to his eyes because this monster, this demon- he was the one who picked him up that day from the battlefield and carried him home.

Utsuro engulfs him in a tight hug, and Gintoki wakes up with a start, a picture of him being swallowed by the shadows imprinted in the back of his eyelids.

“I need to stop drinking,” he tells no one in particular.

Far away, a horn blows and people start dropping dead because an immortal demon had returned to its homeland.

Gintoki can't sleep because his hands won't stop shaking and he knows, deep down, that if Utsuro made even half the effort, he'd find himself by his father's side as the monster's child.

 


End file.
